"He was already the senior deputy to Mullah Mansour. It's a clever choice because he is a religious scholar from the founder generation of the Taliban, and was close to Mullah Omar," said Ruttig, referring to the one-eyed mujahedeen commander who led the group from its inception in 1994.

Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhunzada, named the new Afghan Taliban leader.

"He may therefore be able to integrate the younger and more militant generation," he said.

"The Taliban understood that they needed a new consensus leader, and quickly, to prevent what was possibly the aim of the U.S. and Afghan governments -- to create turmoil around the succession."

Respected cleric

The new Taliban leader belongs to the Noorzai tribe and is in his late 50s --although the Taliban claim he is 47 years old --and hails from the Taliban heartland in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province, according to Sayed Mohammad Akbar Agha, a founding member of the Taliban who lives in Kabul and says he knows the new leader.

While Akhundzada was involved in the mujahedeen struggle against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, Agha said he was unlikely to have participated in front-line military activities.

He did judicial work between 1996 and 2001, the period of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and after the group's fall from power in late 2001 he worked as Taliban chief justice, according to Agha.

He became Mullah Mansour's deputy when he succeeded Mullah Omar in 2013, and subsequently took an active part in the day-to-day running of the movement, playing a key role in negotiating a ceasefire with a dissident Taliban faction earlier this year.

Michael Semple, professor at the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queen's University Belfast, said Akhundzada was the author of "many of the decrees that Mansour used to provide religious cover for his actions."

Photos:The Taliban

The Taliban, a Sunni Islamist organization operating primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was formed in 1994. It was led by Mullah Mohammed Omar, a veteran of the Afghan mujahedeen that fought invading Soviets from 1979-1989. Omar, seen here in an undated video image, died in April 2013, according to a representative for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

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Photos:The Taliban

In this image taken off television by BBC Newsnight, Omar -- fourth from left -- attends a rally with Taliban troops before their victorious assault on Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, in 1996. The Taliban's aim is to impose its interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan and remove foreign influence from the country. Most of its members are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

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Photos:The Taliban

Tanks manned by Taliban fighters are decorated with flowers in front of the presidential palace in Kabul on September 27, 1996.

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Photos:The Taliban

Taliban soldiers in Russian-made tanks fire on the forces of former Afghan defense minister Ahmad Shah Massood in October 1996.

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Photos:The Taliban

Afghan women in Kabul are covered head to toe in traditional burqas on October 16, 1996. After taking over Kabul, the ruling Taliban imposed strict Islamic laws on the Afghan people. Television, music and non-Islamic holidays were banned. Women were not allowed to attend school or work outside the home, and they were forbidden to travel alone.

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Photos:The Taliban

Three women hitch a ride on the back of a donkey cart as they pass by the ruins of Kabul's former commercial district in November 1996.

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Photos:The Taliban

This is an undated image believed to show the Taliban's former leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. In 1997, the Taliban issued an edict renaming Afghanistan the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The country was only officially recognized by three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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Photos:The Taliban

In 1997, Omar forged a relationship with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, pictured. Bin Laden then moved his base of operations to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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Photos:The Taliban

In March 2001, Taliban soldiers stand at the base of the mountain alcove where a Buddha statue once stood 170 feet high in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The Taliban destroyed two 1,500-year-old Buddha figures in the town, saying they were idols that violated Islam.

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Photos:The Taliban

After the 9/11 attacks, the United States conducted military strikes against al Qaeda training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime. In this long-exposure photo, a U.S. Navy fighter jet takes off from the deck of the USS Enterprise on October 7, 2001.

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Photos:The Taliban

An Afghan anti-Taliban fighter pops up from his tank to spot a U.S. warplane bombing al Qaeda fighters in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan on December 10, 2001. After massive U.S. bombardment as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom, the Taliban lost Afghanistan to U.S. and Northern Alliance forces.

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Photos:The Taliban

Afghans look into Omar's bedroom as they go through his compound on the outskirts of Kandahar on December 11, 2001.

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Photos:The Taliban

In April 2011, hundreds of prisoners escaped from a prison in Kandahar by crawling through a tunnel. The Taliban took responsibility for the escape. This picture shows a general view of the prison, top center, and the house, bottom right, from which Taliban militiamen dug the tunnel leading to the prison.

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Photos:The Taliban

Security guards stand outside the new Taliban political office in Doha, Qatar, before its official opening in June 2013. The Taliban announced that they hoped to improve relations with other countries, head toward a peaceful solution to the Afghanistan occupation and establish an independent Islamic system in the country.

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Photos:The Taliban

Zafar Hashemi, deputy spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, speaks during a news conference on July 29, when the news of Omar's death was announced.

Akuhnzada: No to peace talks

A source in the Taliban reached through an intermediary told CNN that Akhundzada told commanders and shura members that there will be no peace talks.

The source said that the appointment of Akuhnzada "will bring back the era of Mullah Omar" with "a simple life, loyalty, and terror on enemies."

An educated and well-respected figure within the organization, his authority stemmed principally from his reputation as a religious teacher and scholar, which meant he could prove easier to negotiate a peace settlement with than his predecessors, Agha said.

Ahmed Rashid, author of five books on the Taliban and the region, said that Akhundzada's position on talks with the Afghan government was not known.

The Taliban has made strong battlefield gains against government forces in recent months, driving back Afghan troops from key positions and launching a string of bombings in Kabul. On Wednesday the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the capital that killed 10 people and injured four others, including two children.

Rashid said the Taliban hoped his appointment would herald a return to a more consensus form of leadership within the group.

"The new leader is neither a political figure nor a military figure but is known and respected for jurisprudence and legal decisions. He is bound to reach out to others in the shura to discuss all issues," he told CNN, referring to the Taliban's leadership council.

Mullah Omar's son promoted

A Taliban statement announcing Akhundzada's appointment said that all members of group's leadership council pledged allegiance to the new leader, which was "a religious obligation."

The statement also named his two deputies, Mawlawi Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob.

Haqqani is the leader of Haqqani terror network, long aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda, while Yaqoob is the son of former leader Mullah Omar.

Haqqani, who has a $10 million State Department bounty on his head, heads a extensive family-based criminal network based primarily in North Waziristan, Pakistan. It held captured U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl before he was repatriated in a prisoner swap.

Ruttig said the deputies represented the younger, more militant generation of the organization, which the Taliban was likely seeking to better integrate through their appointments.

Yaqoob's selection could help boost the Taliban's legitimacy in its southern Kandahar heartland, while Haqqani's appointment could have the same effect in the network's center of gravity in the east, he said.

Pledge of allegiance

The Taliban statement also confirmed the death of the previous leader, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's Balochistan province Saturday. It called on "all Muslims" to enter a three-day period of mourning for Mansour.

The Taliban had previously confirmed Mansour's death to CNN but today's announcement is the first public statement from the group acknowledging the death. U.S. and Afghan intelligence agencies had also independently confirmed his death.

Pakistan voiced objections over Mansour's assassination, stating that the strike was a violation of its sovereignty.

Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhunzada, named the new Afghan Taliban leader following the death of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, is in his late 50s and comes from Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province.

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Photos:Leaders of deadliest terrorist groups

Ayman Al-Zawahiri is the leader of al Qaeda. He previously acted as Osama bin Laden's personal physician and is believed to have played an important role in the September 11 terror attacks.

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Photos:Leaders of deadliest terrorist groups

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the leader of ISIS, the militant group that wants to create an Islamic state across areas of Iraq and Syria. Not much is known about the ruthless leader. A reward of up to $10 million has been offered by the U.S. government.

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Photos:Leaders of deadliest terrorist groups

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Photos:Leaders of deadliest terrorist groups

Mullah Fazlullah is the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. The group, which has links to the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for shooting teen activist Malala Yousafzai and attempting to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square in 2010.

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Photos:Leaders of deadliest terrorist groups

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Photos:Leaders of deadliest terrorist groups

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